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Standing once more in front of the stone pile he shook him- 
self until his fur stood out all over him, that fur for which 
any dealer would give a big price 


STRIPED COAT 
THE SKUNK 

by 

Joseph Wharton Lippincott 

Author of *‘Bun, a Wild Rabbit’* 

**Red Ben, the Fox of Oak Ridge” 
and “Gray Squirrel” . 



THE PENN PUBLISHING 
COMPANY PHILADELPHIA 
MCMXXII 



COPYRIGHT 
19 2 2 BY 
THE PENN 
PUBLISHING 
COMPANY 



Striped Coat, the Skunk 


MADE IN V. S. A. 


'!> n 

OCT -6 ’22 

©C1A680094 




INTRODUCTION 


T EST I be misunderstood in calling 
this wonderful little animal man’s 
best friend among the furry creatures of 
the wood, let me at the outset draw at- 
tention to the fact that, far from putting 
a bounty on its destruction as some 
people might think desirable, many 
states have laws protecting it, as much 
for its usefulness to the farmers as for 
the value of its very beautiful fur. 

The large black and white striped 
skunks we or our pet dogs often encoun- 
ter, sometimes to our disaster, belong 
only in North America. Our friend 
Striped Coat was one of these. In the 


INTRODUCTION 


southern and western states lives also a 
little cousin of his — the spotted skunk — 
whose fur though attractive is not so 
valuable; but neither he nor the broad- 
striped skunk of Central and South 
America enter the pages of this story, 
for Striped Coat lived his life farther 
north than the range of either. 

All of the skunk family still seem to 
be considered unpleasant and almost un- 
mentionable creatures merely because of 
their ability to throw in self-defence a 
liquid, in the form of a spray, possessing 
anything but the fragrance of roses. 
Admitting that the odor is indescribably 
awful and that to get it on one’s cloth- 
ing is anything but a reason for joy, it 
may still be claimed that the skunk him- 
self is by no means a '‘smelly” animal 
and that his recourse to this means of 
4 


INTRODUCTION 


defending his life is quite permissable as 
proved by our own methods of warfare. 

Iii the ocean the otherwise defenceless 
little squid, when attacked, throws out 
a dark liquid which spreads in the water 
and cither blinds its pursuer momenta- 
rily or so confuses his vision that the 
active squid has time to escape. It is 
the same thing in the case of the skunk. 
Let a fierce dog rush at him, and when a 
show of his little teeth and a brave 
stand have failed to save the poor fel- 
low, deny him if you can the right to use 
as a last resort this stinging, pungent 
musk which, properly aimed at the eyes 
of his big enemy will have just enough 
effect to allow him a safe and bloodless 
retreat. 

I do not doubt that there are many 
skunks who have never had occasion to 
5 


INTRODUCTION 


pollute the air in this way. Several 
have lived for years in drains around my 
country home, and because my dogs are 
tied at night, have only twice made their 
presence known by throwing musk — 
once when one of their number was run 
over by an automobile and once when 
some kind of a fight occurred among the 
animals feeding together at night 
around the garbage barrel. 

That they have done me great service 
in killing rats, field mice, beetles and 
grubs, is only too evident. On all sides 
are small holes in the earth and other- 
wise unobtrusive signs of their diligence 
in my behalf. They are my friends and 
I am theirs. To me no other pretty 
creature of the woods is more interest- 
ing. 

In the past the skunk has been badly 
6 


INTRODUCTION 


treated by authors. It was so easy to 
take a humorous but barbed fling at the 
poor wood pussy ! But that day is past, 
for facts will out and our debt of grati- 
tude is too great longer to be ignored. 
If my own words in tracing a part of the 
life history of Striped Coat, prove at all 
illuminating, I shall be happy. I have 
come across several skunks of his pecul- 
iar marking; one of them, partly tamed, 
is shown in the illustrations; but the 
story itself is largely fictional though 
following throughout the habits and 
true characteristics of these wild little 
friends of man. Belonging as they do 
to the elusive weasel tribe and being 
largely nocturnal in their habits, to 
chronicle all the actual happenings in 
the natural, wild life of one of them 
would seem an impossible task. 

7 


INTRODUCTION 


Including this little creature in my 
wild animal series is somewhat contrary 
to the advice of my publishers who nat- 
urally believe in “best sellers” rather 
than in “best smellers,” but I have a 
fond hope that Striped Coat will win his 
way with readers to a place beside Bun, 
Red Ben, Gray Squirrel and those to fol- 
low. I might add that a young skunk 
readily becomes a very tame, unusually 
interesting and beautiful pet, a safe one 
however only if accidents are provided 
against by “disarming,” that is, by the 
removal of the two scent sacs. 

J. W. L. 

Bethayres, Pa. 


8 


OHAPTBB 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAOB 

I. 

The Wood Pussy’s Journey .. 

13 

II. 

Strong Medicine .... 

24 

III. 

Under the Brush Pile 

34 

IV. 

Every Animal Must Eat . 

45 

V. 

The Burning Woods . . 

56 

VI. 

Good Hunting 

65 

VII. 

Strange Happenings . 

75 

VIII. 

The Mystery Solved . 

85 

IX. 

Fifty Dollars on His Head . 

97 

X. 

Captured at Last .... 

107 

XI. 

The Winter Sleep . . . . 

117 

XII. 

The Spring Awakening . 

125 

XIII. 

Raising a Family .... 

133 

XIV. 

Master of the Woods . 

144 


9 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


Standing once more in front of the stone 
pile he shook himself until his fur 
stood out all over him, that fur for 
which any dealer would give a big 
price Frontispiece 

FACINa 

PAGE 

Striped Coat’s foot-prints; front and hind 

foot (Pen and Ink) 26 

The wood pussy examined it very care- 
fully 28 

The mouse . . . had left in the nest her 

whole family of five young ones . 51 

Several times she looked out and wan- 
dered about uneasily .... 64 

Where he had been a moment before, now 
stood the big bird, its eyes glaring, 
wings ready for another dash and 


strike 72 

He approached with caution .... 89 

II 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

rAoiira 

PAOB 

In much the same way as a young hawk 

before it acquires its full plumage . 104 

Under the persimmon and wild apple trees 
he picked up ripe fruit, often shaken 
down by Possum 119 

The friendliness of this beautiful and en- 
tirely free creature of the woods de- 
lighted many a visitor . . . .122 

Side by side they neared the entrance . .132 

The three tugging, biting, squealing and 
pulling each other this way and that 
until they burst from under the barn 
and had it out on the flat ground . 141 

Skunk Tracks (Pen and Ink) . . .148 

‘That big black skunk of yours was the 

one that did the trick” . . . . 149 


12 


Striped Coat, the Skunk 

CHAPTER I 

THE WOOD pussy’s JOURNEY 



E full moon was shining over the 


narrow waters of Goose Creek. 
Here and there, its light slipped be- 
tween the seemingly endless branches 
of the cedars, pines and oaks, and lay in 
silvery patches on the sand along the 
banks and on the carpet of dead leaves 
which extended from either side of the 
stream on and on, into the big silent 
woods. Wherever the light could not 
pierce the foliage, there were black 
shadows in streaks and squares and 
checker board patterns — black on white. 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

white on black — ^just two colors all 
through the quiet woods. 

But presently one of these patterns 
seemed to move. The keen round eyes 
of Screech Owl who was perching on a 
dead limb overhead, soon made out the 
form of an animal, about the size of a 
small cat, moving quietly along the 
woods path; but even Screech Owl had 
to look very hard, for this little animal 
was all black and white itself and there- 
fore like a part of the woods carpet. 

Along the path it ambled until an- 
other animal about the same size but 
gray in color appeared from the op- 
posite direction. Then the little black 
and white one slowed down to a walk 
until the other, a ’possum, had passed, 
but it might have been noted that it was 
the ’possum which moved out of the 

H 


THE WOOD PUSSY’S JOURNEY 


path. When, a little further on, a 
larger animal. Gray Fox, came trotting 
through the shadows and not seeing the 
black and white one, nearly bumped 
into it, the haste with which Gray Fox 
leaped aside to make the way clear was 
almost comical. Since both Possum 
and Gray Fox felt such respect for the 
little black and white animal it was 
very evident that there was something 
most important or formidable about it. 

This same feeling was even shared by 
two big does who with their young 
fawns close at heel were walking to the 
creek to drink. With snorts of surprise 
and of warning to their tender charges, 
they stood in the path for an instant, at 
bay, the young ones peeping with wide 
spread ears from behind their flanks. 
But the black and white animal, ac- 
15 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

knowledging the right of every woods 
mother to protect her young, stopped 
just long enough to allow the deer to 
see who it was and gracefully to step 
out of the way. Then on it ambled. 

Two old coons shuffled out of the 
path without any hesitation, so did 
the mate of Gray Fox — all feared to 
come to close quarters with a full grown 
wood pussy; but a mother mink who was 
hungry and in a bad temper anyway, 
halted directly in the center of the wood 
pussy’s trail and curled back her lips in 
an evil snarl which showed every tooth 
in her head. 

The skunk, taken by surprise, slowed 
down to a walk, her long fur bristling 
just a little and her bright, beady little 
eyes and sharp nose trying their best to 
search out some reason for this menace. 

i6 


THE WOOD PUSSY’S JOURNEY 

She had often passed the slim-bodied 
mink at a distance, and knew her well as 
one of the woods creatures that belonged 
in that part of the wood. Surely the 
mink recognized her. 

With bushy tail raised well over her 
back and every muscle ready to meet an 
attack the skunk sidled cautiously for- 
ward. She was not afraid, but she was 
good natured and hated a fuss. Nearer 
she came, then suddenly stamped a front 
foot so fiercely and with such a show of 
anger that the mink instinctively drew 
back. Past her then grandly sailed the 
skunk in the very center of the path, all 
fluffed up like a ship under full sail. If 
she saw the furious gleam in the mink’s 
eyes she did not show it, but went on 
about her business as unconcernedly as 
before. 


17 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


It was to be sure, the custom among 
the little wild things not to ‘interfere 
with anyone in the woods unless he was 
a playmate or unless he looked good to 
eat. The little gnawing tribe of grass 
and nut eaters, the mice, the squirrels, 
the rabbits and their kind nearly always 
looked like a good meal to meat eaters 
such as the fox, skunk, mink, owl, ’pos- 
sum, ’coon and cat. Therefore the 
little nut and grass eaters always had to 
be careful to keep entirely out of the 
way of the killers ; otherwise they were 
seen no more. But a mink would not 
care to eat an old skunk unless starva- 
tion stared him in the face, nor would he 
go outside of the mink family in search 
of a playmate. 

These, however, were strange, excit- 
ing days for the v/oods folk. It was 

i8 


THE WOOD PUSSY’S JOURNEY 

spring time and nearly all of them were 
hunting mates or, like the mother mink, 
taking care of families of hungry little 
ones. Only the wood pussy seemed all 
alone and unhurried as she travelled 
steadily through the moonlight. 

Before very long, the path she fol- 
lowed ended in a fenced clearing. This 
was new to her, so she proceeded cau- 
tiously, with many stops to test the night 
air through her keen nose. Strange 
things had happened since she had been 
there before. Trees had been cut down 
and dragged into heaps; a house and a 
barn had been built; and worst of all 
for the wood pussy, the hollow stump for 
which she had headed so confidently all 
this time, was uprooted and gone from 
its old place. Now she too grew wor- 
ried and ran this way and that hunting 
19 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

for this cozy, safe den which, during the 
Spring before, had been her home. 

Well she remembered where it had 
stood, among beds of sweet fern and 
blackberry bushes, now all plowed un- 
der or, if their ends did stick up from the 
furrows, reeking with the smell of man 
and of his constant companion the dog. 

As the poor wood pussy looked about, 
a new fear swept through her. It was 
growing light in the East; soon the shad- 
ows would be gone and she would be 
caught without a den far from the wood- 
chuck burrow from which, early in the 
night, she had made this journey with 
such assurance. 

She turned back, slowly retracing her 
steps to the edge of the wood where 
stood the rows of brush piles. Here she 
began to hunt for a temporary hiding 
20 


THE WOOD PUSSY’S JOURNEY 

place. The brush piles had not been 
there long enough to have settled into 
tight, safe retreats; but one of them had 
a base of logs under which the wood 
pussy found a narrow hole. Into this 
she pushed her way only to be startled by 
the sudden scampering of some animal 
which had already made this a home. 

It was Bun, the woods rabbit. He 
was big, but his teeth and mouth were 
shaped for gnawing soft grass and bark, 
not fighting, so he made way very 
quickly for the skunk and waited out- 
side until she should leave. But this 
she did not do, so after a while he grew 
impatient and peeped inside only to find 
her curled up in his bed of leaves fast 
asleep. 

Bun angrily thumped his hind feet 
against the earth and complained a bit 
21 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


to himself, but finally had to go away 
and find another bed. He knew of 
several, for he was used to this kind of 
treatment on the part of the powerful 
meat eaters and was always ready for a 
quick change, inconvenient though it 
sometimes seemed. 

Through the day, while the sun shone 
warmly on the wood pile and the little 
birds hopped about it, there was no sign 
of the weary wood pussy. Once she 
looked out to see whether it was safe 
yet to make the trip back to the wood- 
chuck’s burrow, but finding the sun high 
overhead returned to Bun’s nest. Sev- 
eral times she moved uneasily and 
pulled more leaves about her for bed- 
ding. But she did not leave the wood- 
pile that day nor the night following, 
and when in the morning the birds 
22 


THE WOOD PUSSY’S JOURNEY 


awoke with the dawn and chirruped 
among the twigs, there were five wood 
pussies instead of one, in Bun’s old nest, 
four of them hairless, blind babies only 
a few hours old, over whom the old 
wood pussy was already keeping faith- 
ful, tireless guard. 


23 


CHAPTER II 


STRONG MEDICINE 

A nd so it happened that Fanner Ben 
Slown had a family of skunks as 
neighbors. Some people might have 
been happy about it, but not he. It 
was well for the family that they were 
hidden under the wood pile so securely 
that he did not even suspect they were 
there; for Farmer Slown had never 
learned to live on friendly terms with 
the little woodsfolk. 

He shot the crows and blackbirds be- 
cause he thought they spent most of their 
time eating his crops. He set traps for 
the rabbits and the woodchucks because 


24 


STRONG MEDICINE 


they nibbled his vegetables. The squir- 
rels, in his opinion, lived only to carry 
away his corn, and the foxes, skunks, 
hawks and other meat eaters were sup- 
posed to be always on the lookout for 
his chickens. Altogether he made him- 
self have a hard time with his wild 
neighbors. 

He had moved into the woods and 
started his present farm because he 
wished to be far away from every human 
being, in a place where he could do 
pretty much what he pleased with every- 
thing he saw. But even Farmer Slown 
could not regulate the actions of the 
wild furry folk, nor know how many 
pairs of bright little eyes watched the 
lights of his house at night from field 
and thicket and high tree top. 

No roads led into the big woods, but 
25 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


the farmer had a flat bottomed boat in 
which he could pole up and down Goose 
Creek. Then, too, there was the woods 
path along the stream, worn smooth by 



Striped Coat’s foot-prints ; front and hind foot. 

deer and by countless little padded feet. 
So Ben Slown was able to reach the vil- 
lage when he wanted to, which was not 
often. 

When finally his new neighbor, the 
wood pussy, slipped from underneath 
the brush pile, she was not very happy. 
Out in the field, however, she could hear 
the hum of night flying beetles and the 
26 


STRONG MEDICINE 


chirping of other insects, so in that direc- 
tion she wandered. Beside clods of 
earth and under rubbish she poked her 
nose, cleverly digging out bugs where- 
ever they had hidden themselves and 
finding, now and then, small grubs and 
worms of different kinds. No matter 
how small or how big, if she could get a 
hold of them that was the end of their 
happy days of feeding on the Farmer’s 
crops. 

But it was too early in the year for 
many insects to have collected in a 
freshly cleared field, so when she had 
searched most of the ground, the wood 
pussy’s hunger was nearly as great as 
ever. There remained indeed the yard 
around the house and barn, and into this 
apparently deserted place the little 
mother’s hunger now led her. 

27 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

She crept around the dog house and 
listened for a moment to the farmer’s 
old black and white hound wheezing in 
his sleep and grunting every time a flea 
bit him particularly hard. There were 
dry bones lying about the entrance but 
these she was too shy to take. 

Next came the barn, a more interest- 
ing building, from which issued the 
strong scent of horses, poultry and the 
Farmer’s milk goat. The wood pussy 
examined it very carefully, sniffing 
through the cracks, straining to reach the 
open windows and finally getting under- 
neath the floor by way of a loose board 
at the rear. She saw at once that this 
was a good hiding place, except for its 
nearness to things she did not under- 
stand and so could not help fearing. 

28 



The wood pussy examined it very carefully 






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STRONG MEDICINE 


But food was the important thing 
now, so next she crept around the house 
and hungrily picked up scraps thrown 
from the kitchen door, potato peelings 
for the most part, with one foot of a hen 
and two fish skeletons as tid bits. An 
old ’possum was there too, munching 
away in sour silence and cracking bones 
with his strong jaws. 

These two were not, however, long to 
enjoy their humble meal. Suddenly 
Possum looked up and shuffled towards 
the wood. The skunk, knowing he had 
discovered something wrong, also 
straightened up. She then saw sneak- 
ing around the house the black and 
white hound who had either smelled or 
heard the two feasters and was coming 
around to investigate. 

29 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


Her short legs would not make much 
speed, but she did her best to reach the 
hole under the barn. This however 
served only to bring on the hound full 
tilt to head her off. Being a noisy fel- 
low he fairly bellowed with joy when he 
caught up and had her almost in his 
jaws. 

But just in time she turned on him 
and threw up so quickly her dangerous 
looking, fluffy tail that he checked him- 
self and began to dance around her in a 
circle, looking for a better chance to rush 
in without in any way getting hurt him- 
self. The noise was quite enough to 
bring Farmer Slown’s tousled head out 
of the window. 

‘'What’s going on around here!” he 
thundered. In the dark he could not 
see what kind of creature the dog had 
30 


STRONG MEDICINE 


found, but wanted it killed anyway. 
“Sic ’em, you!” he encouraged, “sic 
’em !” But the hound was a big coward 
at heart and only danced about all the 
more. 

The Farmer grew angry at once. 

“Just you wait!” he muttered, and 
vanished from the window only to ap- 
pear at the door, clad in his blue night 
shirt and armed with a gun. 

“Now, go for him!” he called and ran 
out to help the dog. 

That was enough encouragement for 
the hound. Just as his master came up, 
he excitedly threw himself on the wood 
pussy, but not before that quick little 
animal had twisted herself around and 
given him a terrible musk bath square 
in the eyes and mouth. She could not 
run fast, her claws were not made for 
31 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

scratching, nor her teeth for fighting, but 
she had instead this weapon of defense 
which was enough to stop any hound. 

With a yowl of pain the surprised 
dog threw himself on the ground and 
tried to rub the smarting stuff from his 
half blinded eyes. He wildly rolled 
and rubbed and finally in desperate fear 
and pain rushed to Farmer Slown and 
bounded against him again and again 
regardless of the man’s frantic efforts to 
keep him away. 

The dog, the man, the yard and in- 
deed the whole farm were wrapped in a 
cloud of horrible odor. But the little 
wood pussy, unhurt and untouched by 
the musk, was nowhere to be seen. She 
had vanished in the confusion and soon 
was nursing the hungry young ones safe 
under the brush pile. 

32 


STRONG MEDICINE 


That night, the little watchers about 
the clearing could have seen an angry 
looking figure in a blue night shirt strid- 
ing down the path to the waters of Goose 
Creek. A big bar of soap and a towel 
went along too, also a strong smell, sug- 
gestive of fumes from a burning gum 
shoe factory. Also there was some fiery 
language about fool dogs, wood pussies 
in general and a certain one especially. 
Oh, it was a great night on Goose Creek ! 


33 


CHAPTER III 


UNDER THE BRUSH PILE 

^ I 'HE next day found the farm still 
rich with the bitter odor of musk. 
The Farmer’s brisk scrubbing in the 
waters of Goose Creek removed the 
worst of the scent from his own limbs, 
but plenty remained to keep him re- 
minded of the night’s experience. So 
he and his hound went about with sore 
noses hating themselves and brooding 
over the mean treatment they thought 
they had received. Each vowed ven- 
geance in his own way, but neither felt 
especially anxious to again meet the 
little wood pussy face to face. There 
34 


UNDER THE BRUSH PILE 


was enough perfume around the farm 
already. It was all very well to get an 
occasional whiff of an odor so interest- 
ingly awful, but to have it follow them 
about everywhere and almost live with 
them, was quite another affair. 

On the second day, however, a strong 
breeze carried away much of the objec- 
tionable smell and Farmer Slown 
breathed easier. He even plucked up 
enough courage to hunt around his field 
and in the neighboring thickets for the 
wood pussy’s den, which he was shrewd 
enough to guess was nearby. 

The brush piles quickly caught his 
eye. He poked around the first one, 
then moved to the next and finally 
reached the very one under which slept 
the baby skunks and their mother. 
This one looked more promising than 
35 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

the others, so the Farmer got down on 
his hands and knees and cautiously — oh, 
exceedingly carefully — ^peered under 
the logs. 

Inside, the mother, hearing the heavy 
footsteps and the cracking of the brush, 
stood up in readiness to defend the little 
ones with her musk and with her own 
life if necessary. She made no sound, 
the young ones absorbing her fear, also 
keeping very still, waiting, as if know- 
ing that terrible danger was near. 

And Farmer Slown looked and lis- 
tened and sniffed but could discover 
nothing. He was not entirely satisfied, 
however, and so took the risk of mov- 
ing closer. He was well within the 
wood pussy’s fatal aim, but still did not 
know it. Then he poked his red face 
so close to the ground that a low briar 
36 


UNDER THE BRUSH PILE 


pricked his nose. With an exclamation 
he drew back only to find that another 
had caught his ear and become partly 
wound around his neck. 

At once his quick temper broke loose. 
Tearing himself free he kicked about 
him to destroy the offending bushes, and 
failing in this, strode away. Thus the 
meddlesome Farmer was saved from a 
much worse dose of musk than he re- 
ceived the first time. But more trouble 
was brewing ; the man had made up his 
mind that the brush heaps were bad 
things to have near his fields, he had de- 
cided to burn them. That day, how- 
ever, he did not have time, and on the 
next it rained, so the wood pussies lived 
on; and every day the little ones grew 
bigger and stronger. 

But while Farmer Slown did not find 
37 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

the little family, the nest was not hid- 
den from the prying eyes and keen 
noses of the woodsfolk. Gray Fox, 
trotting by on the first night, had at 
once caught the faint scent of the baby 
skunks and turned to investigate. He 
had, however, found the mother on 
guard and so that time had passed on. 

Another who found the place was the 
mother mink with whom the wood 
pussy had already had trouble. As 
usual Mink was hungry; she had four 
little ones of her own in a burrow un- 
der a cedar whose roots dipped into 
Goose Creek. Therefore she sneaked 
under the woodpile and might have 
carried off one or all of the baby skunks 
if their mother had not returned sud- 
denly and sprung upon her. 

38 


UNDER THE BRUSH PILE 


Mink, knowing herself in the wrong, 
backed off snarling, then flashed out 
of the woodpile and away. Both she 
and Gray Fox, however, remembered 
that here was something young, help- 
less and good to eat. Sometime when 
they came in that direction the mother 
might not be near and then — but some- 
how the wise faithful mother seemed 
to know their designs and to try always 
to be on guard. 

However this was a very unprotected 
place for the little skunks and none felt 
it more than the mother. After Farmer 
Slown’s visit she became too uneasy to 
stay there any longer and thought only 
of making a move all the way back to 
the woodchuck’s deep burrow which had 
been her safe home all winter. Indeed, 
39 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

no sooner had night come again than 
she seized the nearest young one in her 
teeth and started out with it. 

This young one was not like the 
others. To begin with he was stouter. 
Then, too, instead of having a black 
and white back like his brothers and 
sisters he was pure black all over except 
where two narrow white stripes came 
from the top of his head down either 
side of his neck. This little fellow was 
also peculiar in his habits. Nearly all 
night, while the others nervously 
crawled about, he lay happily on his 
back or flat on his stomach resting. 
But no sooner would the mother return 
to feed them than he would hear or 
smell her and spring up so quickly that 
he would be eating with furious energy 
before the others knew quite what was 

40 


UNDER THE BRUSH PILE 


happening. And so he got much food 
and rest and grew very fast. All over 
his body the fur was beginning to show. 
It was short, thick and soft. 

Now the mother, in her anxious state 
had started on an impossible task. 
The woodchuck’s burrow was much too 
far away to be reached in a night by a 
mother skunk with four youngsters that 
had to be carried one at a time. She 
had gone scarcely fifty yards with this 
one when her jaws and neck became 
very tired from lugging the fat, furry 
little fellow. He was slippery as well 
as heavy. Laying him down in the 
path, she rested, and at that moment 
caught a glimpse of Mink galloping 
through the woods towards the brush 
pile. 

The wood pussy looked after this 
41 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


ruthless enemy and started to follow, 
forgetting the baby at her feet until by 
luck she tripped over him. Instantly 
picking him up by the neck she hurried 
back towards the nest. She was not as 
swift as Mink, but fear for the other 
young ones spurred her on until it 
seemed as if the youngster in her mouth 
would nearly be torn to pieces by the 
bushes they sped through, or choked by 
her tight hold. 

Suddenly the brush pile was di- 
rectly in front of them, and the mother 
slowed up as if afraid to face the sight 
she might find. In the next instant, 
however, she had rushed underneath, 
every hair on end, every nerve keyed 
for battle. But Mink was not there, 
she had returned in time ! 

A noise at the entrance caught her ear. 

42 


UNDER THE BRUSH PILE 

She whirled around only to find that 
the young one she had dropped there in 
coming in, had gotten back some of his 
breath and was crawling shakily to the 
nest. Quickly picking him up she 
placed him among the others and then 
sprawled herself over them, panting, 
almost exhausted but ready for Mink. 

And Mink came, smelled about out- 
side, found to her surprise that the 
mother was again on guard and hastily 
bounded away to other hunting grounds. 
But for an hour or more the wood pussy 
stayed there resting and assuring her- 
self through the feel of all those moving 
little bodies underneath her, that all 
were really safe. She had wisely given 
up the idea of moving them to the 
woodchuck burrow. When, later on 
hunger drove her forth, she chose an- 
43 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


Other direction, and did not go further 
than the edge of the field where big, 
buzzing bugs were laying eggs in the 
grass, and where lizards often hid for 
the night. 


44 


CHAPTER IV 


EVERY ANIMAL MUST EAT 

T^ARMER SLOWN was plowing the 
^ corner of the field nearest Goose 
Creek. It was not far from the wood- 
pussies’ den, so the clank of the plow 
chains and the loud commands of '‘gid 
up,” ‘ Vhoa there,” kept the skunk fam- 
ily from their usual morning sleep. 
Then, too, the black and white hound 
amused himself by sniffing about until 
he discovered the hiding place of Bun, 
the woods rabbit, whom he chased for a 
long time with much crashing of brush 
and excited baying. Bun led the 
stupid hound to all the most prickly 
45 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

briar patches and then hid in a hollow 
log. The hound was too big to follow 
him there and so, after growling and 
gnawing at the entrance until his mouth 
was sore, gave up the chase and slunk 
away to rest and lick his scratches. 

Then lunch time arrived and the 
Farmer unhooked the two horses from 
the plow and tied them to the fence, 
where they could munch corn he spread 
for them on some sacking. He then 
walked across the field to the farm yard 
to milk the goat and prepare his own 
meal. 

No sooner had he gone from sight 
than Jim Crow came flying from the 
woods for a look around. His sharp 
eyes at once saw the corn, but he said 
nothing and turned back to the woods 
to wait until the horses had moved. 

46 


EVERY ANIMAL MUST EAT 


away. At the same time however Red 
Squirrel, running about in the pines 
along the edge of the field, had also 
made a discovery of the corn. He 
looked all around to make sure he was 
the only one who had seen this food 
treasure, then sneaked to a nearby limb 
impatiently to watch for a chance to get 
a part of it. 

But Gray Squirrel too had noticed 
the grain, and so also had a keen nosed 
deer mouse and a meadow mouse who 
lived in a round nest of grass hidden in 
a tangle of weeds beside the very posts 
to which the horses were tethered. So 
also had some black birds and a pair of 
starlings, and a blue jay and almost 
countless other creatures always on the 
watch for food. 

Therefore when the afternoon plow- 
47 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

ing was over and the horses had been 
led back to the barn, birds began to 
arrive as if by magic to gather the scat- 
tered kernels. First appeared a mother 
quail with ten young ones not much 
larger than bumble bees following her 
as chicks follow a mother hen. She 
picked up a few of the smaller grains, 
then scurried away as big Jim Crow 
swooped down. He was followed by 
the starlings. Suddenly Red Squirrel 
sounded his rattle from the wood. Up 
flew Jim and the starlings in alarm only 
to see the little red fellow dash along 
the top of the fence, seize a big kernel 
and then rush back with it to a safe re- 
treat. And so the feeding continued, 
with interruptions, until night came 
and only the mice and flying squirrels 
were left to hunt the very few kernels 
48 


EVERY ANIMAL MUST EAT 

which remained. Although the horses 
had been careless with their feed, there 
had been no waste — the woods people 
had seen to that. 

And soon from the brush pile, slipped 
the mother wood pussy. She had heard 
sounds of the feasting and now caught 
the scent left by some of the little crea- 
tures. She walked forward sniffing. 
Suddenly, up a fence post close by, ran 
Flying Squirrel. Out of reach of the 
hungry wood pussy, he squeaked shrilly 
and scolded. But the mother skunk 
was paying no attention, she had caught 
the fresh scent of the meadow mouse 
which lived in the grass nest beside the 
post. 

The mouse had been eating a grain 
of corn when Flying Squirrel’s sudden 
alarm signal had sent her scurrying 
49 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


down her tunnel under the dead grass 
and leaves. Now, seeing no enemy, 
she was cautiously coming back to find 
the grain. Soon she was again gnaw- 
ing away at it with a rasping noise 
which, slight as it was, caught the ear 
of the wood pussy and led her right to 
the spot. 

The next thing the busy mouse saw 
was a pointed black and white head and 
two black paws directly above her. 
Without wasting breath for even a 
squeak of fear, she dashed headlong 
into her tunnel. The wood pussy 
could not open the tunnel quickly 
enough with her paws to catch up and 
so the mouse escaped that time. 

But the skunk was a better mouser 
than any cat. With her strong claws 
she dug along the tunnels and runways, 
50 





riie mouse had left in the nest her whole family of five young 


EVERY ANIMAL MUST EAT 


chasing the mouse from place to place 
until at last she came to the nest of 
grass. Her nose told her that the 
mouse was inside. Now was her 
chance! Poking her sharp head into 
the round entrance to keep the mouse 
from bolting out and past her, she dug 
into the mass of woven grasses with 
her front paws. Soon out came a mass 
of soft lining material made of shred- 
ded bark and tender dry grass blades, 
but no fat mouse. The little creature 
had wisely made a back door with a 
special safety tunnel leading into the 
underground burrow of a mole. Down 
this she had dodged. Even the wood 
pussy could not follow her there. 

However the mouse, thinking only 
of saving herself had left in the nest 
her whole family of five young ones. 

51 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


Their eyes were still tight shut and 
their bodies hairless. If left undis- 
turbed, however, they would soon have 
grown up and been running about like 
the mother making tunnels in the grass 
far and wide, to the disgust of Farmer 
Slown. So the wood pussy did the 
Farmer a good turn, though to her it 
was only a matter of easing her empty, 
aching stomach with a meal and provid- 
ing food for her young ones. 

Next day the mother mouse began to 
build another snug nest in a different 
place, in which in less than three weeks 
she was raising another family. 

Under the wood pile, the young 
wood pussies were more lively than 
ever. It was four weeks since they 
were born, and their eyes were open; 
also their tender legs were growing 

52 


EVERY ANIMAL MUST EAT 


Strong enough to support their little 
furry bodies. 

The fat black one with the white 
stripes on his head and neck — the one 
who had had such a rough journey with 
the mother the night she tried to move 
the family to the woodchuck’s burrow, 
was still the largest. He lay now on 
his back as usual, apparently fast asleep. 
It did not seem to matter to him how 
many times the others climbed over him 
or stepped on his face. But with the 
first step of the mother in the entrance, 
he was on his feet and waddling to- 
wards her with hungry little mouth 
open. She liked the little fellow and 
rarely disappointed him. And it was 
he who a year later became known as 
‘'Striped Coat” from one end of Goose 
Creek to the other — yes, and even 
53 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

further, for fame travels fast in the 
woods. 

At five weeks of age he was like a 
little black ball of fur with a handle to 
it, which was his tail. His teeth were 
strong by that time and he often helped 
the others strip the feathers off some 
tough old blackbird or crow which the 
Farmer had shot in the field and left 
there, and which the mother had 
dragged under the brushpile for a feast. 
No matter how dead the bird, he would 
always pounce upon it as if it might 
escape, then pull and worry at its feath- 
ers and finally seize it by the head and 
try to drag it to a corner, away from the 
others. 

This always caused a big rumpus. 
The others would seize the bird and try 
to pull it in the other direction. All 
54 


EVERY ANIMAL MUST EAT 


four tugging together on one end could 
drag Striped Coat all about the place, 
and they always did this. But while it 
was going on, Striped Coat was as busy 
as a bee chewing on the bird’s neck and 
swallowing just as much as he could 
get into his mouth at a time, until he 
was as solidly stuffed as a plum pud- 
ding. No wonder he slept soundly all 
day sprawled •on his stomach, or with all 
four feet up in the air. Life under the 
brush pile was a happy one. 


55 


CHAPTER V 


THE BURNING WOODS 

O NE fine day the Mother uncurled 
herself and sat up in the nest to 
sniff the air. The young ones awoke 
one by one, and sniffed too, that is, all 
except Striped Coat whose four black 
paws still pointed at the sky as he lay 
on his back sleeping off the effects of his 
last stuffing. There was a smell of 
smoke. Farmer Slown, true to his 
threat, was burning the brush piles. 

Soon the smoke drifted past in masses, 
driven by a brisk breeze blowing to- 
wards Goose Creek. There was a crack- 
ling and snapping noise, with now and 
56 


THE BURNING WOODS 

then a roar when the flames leaped high. 
Even the sun lost its brilliancy and 
could only glow dully like a red hot 
ball in the smoke. 

The mother wood pussy walked about 
uneasily, looking out at the smoke from 
each peep hole in the brush pile. Some 
of the woods folk were running by in 
a stupid panicky way, looking this way 
and that, and often turning back when 
they should have gone only forward. 
Bun, the woods rabbit, actually came 
into the den and crouched there a mo- 
ment before rushing on. Possum, his 
long mouth open and dripping saliva, 
shuffled in a moment later. Ignoring 
the skunks he curled up on a log and 
watched in sour silence. 

Mice and little sharp nosed shrews 
were hopping about like big grasshop- 
57 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


pers with apparently no idea of the 
right direction. At first the Farmer 
had chased these with his rake. Now, 
however, the smoke was too thick, the 
fire had spread far beyond his control 
and was threatening to sweep the whole 
wood. The Farmer’s one idea was to 
stop the flames before they reached his 
buildings. He worked frantically, dig- 
ging and raking, stamping and beating 
until the fire in a great wave had swept 
with the wind all the way to Goose 
Creek and there had been checked by 
the water. 

Meanwhile its fiery breath reached 
one brush pile after another, licking 
them up and sweeping on. The mother 
wood pussy waited as long as she dared, 
then panicky from the roar, the stifling 
smoke and the heat, she seized one of 
58 


THE BURNING WOODS 


the young ones and tried to carry it out. 
It was heavy and slippery, she lost her 
hold and blinded by the smoke could not 
find it. Returning she seized first one, 
then another and then in her excitement 
tried to carry two out together. This 
failed. But her efforts and fear aroused 
the young ones, they understood that 
they had to flee from their home. So 
when the mother was forced by the 
smoke to move out, the young ones 
trooped after her on their own legs, mak- 
ing a long line of black and white 
stripes as each followed the tail of the 
one ahead. 

Last of all came the smallest and in 
front of him came Striped Coat with 
every hair of his body on end and his 
tail straight up in the danger signal. 
Through the smoke they wandered to- 
59 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

wards the field, then along the fence, 
away from the path of the roaring 
flames. 

It was a queer little company. Each 
stumbling along as best he could, bris- 
tling up whenever strange objects like 
roots or stumps loomed suddenly out of 
the smoke, sneezing and choking when 
the tricky wind blew the fire towards 
them. Well it was that each had showy 
white stripes which those behind could 
plainly see and follow, just as men in 
the dark follow a lantern. For in that 
way the mother was able to lead them 
the whole length of the fence and then 
around the corner to the edge of Farmer 
Slown’s barn where, as if she had been 
aiming for it all the time, the mother 
found the hole under the floor and 
6o 


THE BURNING WOODS 

slipped in. After her solemnly trooped 
the little ones. 

And it was a strange thing that be- 
tween them and the fire, their enemy, 
the Farmer, was working for all he was 
worth to save his home and at the same 
time to do what would also save their 
lives. He did not know that a skunk 
family was under his precious barn, but 
he had found out for himself that a fire 
in the woods was a terribly dangerous 
thing. 

When, thanks to the help of Goose 
Creek, the Farmer had put out the last 
flame, he was nearly exhausted and in 
much worse condition than most of the 
little woods folk he had tried to destroy. 
To be sure many of them were homeless, 
but they could find or make new homes. 

6i 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

Indeed, when that night the mother 
wood pussy slipped from under the 
barn and wandered across the field to 
the stretch of burned woods beyond, she 
found the mice already in new holes 
along the edge of the field and Possum 
carrying, in a bundle held by his tail, 
a lot of straw for a new bed he was mak- 
ing in a hollow oak. 

Where the brush piles had stood, and 
beyond, all the way to the creek, every 
living thing was blackened and dying. 
Trees thirty feet high were scorched. 
The ground was almost bare. Many 
years would go by before the forest 
could cover the ugly scars. 

Wandering about in an uncertain, 
awed way were several meat eaters be- 
sides the wood pussy. Gray Fox and 
his mate were slipping from shadow to 
62 


THE BURNING WOODS 


shadow examining everything, a mother 
coon and her three young ones passed 
along the edge of the creek, and over- 
head Screech Owl and several of his 
kind were talking it all over in gentle 
crooning voices. 

The wood pussy could find no trace 
of her old home, the brush pile. It was 
gone. So after a little while she left 
the gloomy place. 

Near the field she picked up a small 
toad and a yellow and brown garter 
snake, both killed by the fire. These 
and a number of wild strawberries were 
food enough, and she was too tired to 
hunt more. Ba,ck then to Farmer 
Slown’s barn she wandered. It was 
not quite the kind of a place she would 
have selected for a den, but there seemed 
no other to which to take the young 
63 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


ones. Stealthily she circled the farm 
yard and slipped into the hole. It was 
smelly and damp and cold under the 
barn floor, but what she thought of most 
was whether it was safe. Several times 
she looked out and wandered about un- 
easily, each time returning to the young 
ones to lick and mother them. They 
seemed utterly tired out; so she began 
gathering together leaves for a bed in 
the farthest corner; she had decided to 
stay. 


64 



Several times she looked out and wandered about uneasily 






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CHAPTER VI 


GOOD HUNTING 

jC'ARMER SLOWN owned six 
chickens. One of them was a 
white pullet which, having not yet made 
a nest, spent much time in going about 
hunting a good place and in telling the 
others about her difficulties. The 
morning after the skunk family took up 
residence under the barn she was still 
wandering around cackling and com- 
plaining. 

“Cawk cawk cawk caw-w-w-w-k,” she 
muttered as she strolled around the cor- 
ner of the barn. Striped Coat, lying 
as usual on his back, turned over quickly 
65 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

and looked about. ''Cawk cawk cawk 
caw-w-w-w-k,” again muttered the 
pullet. The little skunk slipped away 
from the others and peeped out of the 
hole at the strange white bird strolling 
about so close to him. 

He was fascinated. Often he had 
seen and eaten crows, but here was a 
white one which his little nose told him 
would be especially good eating. 
Whenever the pullet passed the hole, 
he moved to the side where he could get 
the best view, but peeped so timidly 
that she did not see him. 

Suddenly she got the idea that in 
some litter under the edge of the barn, 
would be a good place for her nest. 
She looked about, scratched around a 
little and then settled down to form the 
nest around her in a comfortable fit. 

66 


GOOD HUNTING 


Striped Coat never took his eyes off this 
white ‘'crow,’’ and when with a joyful 
cackle the pullet sprang up and raced 
to the other fowls to announce that she 
had laid an egg, Striped Coat’s excite- 
ment knew no bounds. Forgetting all 
natural caution he galloped out to have 
a look at the nest. 

Sure enough, the white crow had for- 
gotten something when she left so hur- 
riedly. He pounced on the egg, tried 
to kill it and finding it a very strange 
hard object, sat down in the nest to 
study out how it could be eaten. But 
the egg was too large for his small mouth 
and he was still rolling it about when the 
mother came out to see what he was up 
to. 

With one bite she took the shell off 
one end, then sucked the contents. 

67 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

Striped Coat, the discoverer, hustled 
around her eagerly, but got only the 
drippings and what was left on the edges 
of the shell. Nevertheless the mother’s 
respect for him increased. He was, 
in her mind, already a successful hunter. 
So when that night she came out for her 
own regular hunt she let Striped Coat 
come too. 

It was dark and damp, just the wea- 
ther beloved by the night prowlers. 
The smell of the flowering shrubs and of 
countless things in the woods, lay heavy 
in the air. The little skunk, trailing 
after his mother’s guiding white stripes, 
picked his way as fast as he could be- 
hind her, but without missing a look at 
anything especially interesting along the 
way. When she stopped to sniff at a 
mouse burrow or to dig under a stump 
68 


GOOD HUNTING 


for a sleeping lizard, or to examine an 
ant nest for young ones and eggs, he 
was always where he would miss noth- 
ing of the fun. 

He tried this once too often however, 
for the mother finally discovered the 
underground nest of a swarm of yellow 
jackets and began to dig it up in spite 
of the great consternation of the inhab- 
itants. They tumbled out in masses 
and stung everything in sight includ- 
ing Striped Coat whose hair was not 
yet long enough to protect him all over 
his body. He rushed about and rolled 
but was so fat that the stinging could 
not hurt him badly. 

Although the yellow jackets had not 
yet made a very big nest, what paper 
combs there were seemed almost choked 
with the amount of young brood they 
69 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

carried — tasty morsels for an insect lov- 
ing animal like a wood pussy, and well 
worth a little digging and an occasional 
sting where the full grown little fighters 
were able to get under the fur. 

After that feast the mother seemed 
content to let Striped Coat do a little 
hunting for himself while she moved 
about slowly, occasionally finding a 
berry, or an unwary beetle on the sur- 
face of the ground. And Striped Coat 
made good use of his opportunity, in 
tasting many kinds of plants and roots 
and in learning where the night crawl- 
ing earth worms could be found and 
caught before they pulled their long 
bodies back into their burrows. 

All too soon, the mother grew uneasy 
about the coming of day and started 
70 


GOOD HUNTING 


back. Striped Coat followed but this 
time found difficulty in keeping up; 
there were no stops now, the mother 
thought only of getting back to the barn. 
So the little skunk, work his short legs 
as he would, kept dropping behind. 
Added to this strain was the presence 
of a big bird. Great Horned Owl, who 
flew silently from tree to tree, at a little 
distance from them but always nearly 
abreast of their course. There was 
something so stealthy about his watch- 
ful waiting that Striped Coat grew 
afraid. 

On and on went the mother with the 
galloping motion used so much by the 
skunks, and Striped Coat still toddled 
along and kept her in sight while also 
watching the big owl. Then some 
71 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

bushes loomed ahead and the little skunk 
found himself suddenly alone. A 
shadow seemed to pass over him; he 
dodged into the bushes like a flash and 
escaped the talons of Great Horned 
Owl by a mere inch. Indeed, where he 
had been a moment before, now stood 
the big bird, its eyes glaring, wings 
ready for another dash and strike. 

Striped Coat cowered back against 
what seemed a solid wall of stems, and 
the owl noting his fear, started into the 
bushes after him; but suddenly things 
changed; with a stamp of his foot the 
little fellow sidled forward, every hair 
on end, his tail straight over his back. 
The owl hesitated; he was facing more 
of a proposition than he had bargained 
for. The little skunk looked young 
and defenseless, but it acted very grown 
,73 



Where he had been a moment before, now stood the big bird, 
its eyes glaring, wings ready for another dash and strike 






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GOOD HUNTING 


up. The owl knew what an old wood 
pussy could do. 

Snapping his hooked beak, the big 
bird backed away and with a final glare, 
took wing as silently as he had come. 
A minute later his “Hu hu, huua hu,” 
sounded nearby as he called to locate 
his mate, then further, and finally so far 
away it was like a faint echo in the dis- 
tance. Then Striped Coat came out 
and continued his journey, and it might 
have been noticed that now he walked 
along with a kind of self confident dig- 
nity, every hair still on end. More 
than ever he looked like a little fur ball, 
but not the kind with which it is safe 
to play. 

Sniffing along his mother’s trail, he 
very quickly came in sight of the hole 
under the barn, but before going in he 
73 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


took a look at the nest of his friend the 
white crow, then, all puffed up, with 
furry tail still proudly held up like a 
flag, he marched in to join the others. 


74 


CHAPTER VII 


STRANGE HAPPENINGS 

A FURIOUS thunder storm was 
sweeping down Goose Creek; hail- 
stones nearly the size of marbles 
bounded from limb to limb or cut 
through the tender leaves on their way 
to earth. Such things sometimes hap- 
pened in the last days of June, but 
rarely were they followed by a wind as 
cold as that which in the night swept 
through the pines around the barn of 
Farmer Slown. It whistled in the holes 
and cracks and made the wood pussies’ 
new home drafty and uncomfortable. 
So the mother very wisely went out 
75 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


in search of warmer covering for their 
nest and after digging into leaf piles 
and finding them disagreeably wet, 
turned her attention to hunting strips 
of bark on the dry sides of dead trees. 
This search brought her to Farmer 
Slown’s fence, the posts of which she 
carefully examined until, within the 
yard, very near the barn, she found just 
what she wanted. But it was not bark, 
it was the Farmer’s blue cotton night 
shirt which, following the storm, he had 
hung on the fence to dry and had for- 
gotten to bring in with the rest of his 
wash. 

The mother reached up to feel it, 
then taking a firm hold with her teeth, 
pulled and swung it about until her 
weight brought it down on top of her. 
This surprised her mightily, and being 
76 


STRANGE HAPPENINGS 


entangled in its folds she nearly gave 
it a better musk bath than it had had on 
the eventful evening when the Farmer 
came out of his bed to the aid of his 
cowardly hound. With her under it the 
night shirt performed some strange an- 
tics; then suddenly it released her and 
fell in such a helpless heap that excited 
as she was she realized it was after all 
not a living enemy which had leaped 
upon her. Instantly calming down, 
she dragged it under the barn where 
some chewing and tearing on the part 
of the whole family soon made it into 
very good bedding, though Farmer 
Slown might not have thought so. In- 
deed, he was in one of his rages all the 
next day while hunting for it in vain 
from one end of his field to the other. 

But comfortable as the blue night 
77 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

shirt proved to be, the mother was not 
quite satisfied with her bed, and so on 
the following night went out in search 
of something else warm. She looked 
first to see if by any chance there might 
be another night shirt growing on the 
fence, but was very satisfied at finding 
instead two pairs of socks and an under- 
shirt which the Farmer, still following 
his usual habit, had unwisely hung out 
on this makeshift clothesline. 

After supper he remembered the 
clothes and went out to bring them in, 
but, feel about as much as he liked, he 
could not find them, they were gone, ab- 
solutely and completely. Then he 
grew really peeved and, using some 
harsh language, commenced a ferocious 
march around the yard, armed with a 
lantern and a stick. At length, still 
78 


STRANGE HAPPENINGS 


completely mystified, he sat down on 
his doorstep to think the thing out. 

“Last night it was the night shirt,” he 
muttered. “Tonight it’s socks and an 
undershirt ! What on earth can be do- 
ing all this dirty work? It can’t very 
well be the wind blowing them away. 
It couldn’t be an eagle; nor a tramp 
way out here; it can’t be the goat — no, 
the goat would do it all right, but she’s 
safely tied. Bugs couldn’t have eaten 
them. Pshaw! I can’t see what did 
take them, but one thing I am sure of 
and that is that they didn’t walk off by 
themselves!” With that he slapped a 
mosquito on his neck and went inside 
the house. 

A few minutes later, however, he 
strode out like one to whom has sud- 
denly come a great idea. In his hand 
79 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


were two socks which he proceeded to 
nail to the fence with the feet hanging 
down as naturally as before. 

“Now, you spook you, get those if 
you can!” he said encouragingly. Re- 
turning then to the house he put out the 
lights and posted himself at an open 
window with shot gun at his elbow and 
a pocket full of spare cartridges. As he 
looked at the bait on the fence oppo^ 
site he chuckled grimly and acknowl- 
edged himself very clever indeed. 

But if the weird creature, whatever 
it was, had earlier been eager for his 
clothes it certainly was so no longer. 
Hours passed and still the Farmer sat 
there with eye glued on the two socks 
hanging in the moonlight. Behind 
them the woods came in close and black, 
throwing long shadows which moved 
8o 


STRANGE HAPPENINGS 

from time to time under the influence of 
the night wind. There was a gentle 
rustle of countless leaves, the hooting 
of distant owls, the call of Great Blue 
Heron and the patter of flying squirrels 
as they leaped onto his roof from the 
nearest tall tree. There was also the 
endless hum of the insect army, in- 
creased now and then by the rasping of 
a locust in a limb close by ; but nothing 
of an unusual nature. 

Suddenly the Farmer rubbed his eyes 
and leaned forward, then rubbed them 
again; one sock was gone! Yes, there 
was no doubt about it! He had seen 
nothing, heard nothing strange, yet 
there in the moving black and white 
shadows hung only one lone sock. It 
seemed so impossible that he just sat 
there with mouth open. 

8i 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

A few minutes later, however, he 
reached stealthily for his gun with a 
hand that trembled oddly. His eyes 
had a queer bulge and chills were run- 
ning up his spine and into the roots of 
his stiff hair. The other sock was gone ! 

Carefully closing the window. Far- 
mer Slown tiptoed about the house, 
noiselessly barring doors and even prop- 
ping things against them. For the 
first time in his life he had seen some- 
thing uncanny, had felt that the great 
woods contained something more cun- 
ning, perhaps more powerful, than he. 
He shivered while listening suspi- 
ciously. And at this unfortunate mo- 
ment, the black and white hound took 
the notion to feel lonely and to howl at 
the moon. It was the lonesomest, most 
woebegone sound imaginable. Perhaps 
82 


STRANGE HAPPENINGS 

it could not be said that the Farmer 
ran up the dark stairs, rather might it 
be said that he flew. Behind the locked 
door of his room he felt better, but still 
the weird loneliness of the dark woods 
came through from the window. With 
a jerk he pulled down the shade, then 
jumped into bed, clothes and all. 

If he felt shivery that night, at least 
the wood pussies did not. The mother 
was now entirely satisfied with their 
nest, for it was truly a wonderful one. 
She had found the last two socks some- 
what harder to tear down than the 
others, but had managed to get them by 
pulling the ends through the fence one 
at a time and then straining back with 
all her strength until the wool stretched 
on the nail and gave way with such sud- 
denness as to roll her over. This 
83 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


Stretching and sudden jerk was what 
caused each sock to vanish through the 
fence so quickly that the Farmer could 
not see it go. The moving shadows did 
the rest. Into them the black wood 
pussy with her long white stripes fitted 
in as naturally as if a part of them. 


84 


CHAPTER VIII 


THE MYSTERY SOLVED 

'C'ARMER SLOWN arose early, 
milked the goat with nervous 
speed, breakfasted on one less egg than 
usual and started for the village in his 
flat-bottomed boat. His principal er- 
rand there was the buying of two huge 
steel traps guaranteed to hold anything 
up to a grizzly bear in size. These two 
traps having long been on exhibit in a 
hardware store window as curiosities to 
draw a crowd and to help advertise the 
store’s wares, their purchase by the 
Farmer very naturally aroused the cu- 
riosity of the shopkeeper and of several 
85 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


village loungers who happened to be 
witnesses of the sale. 

Questions soon drew from the Farm- 
er enough details of the strange doings 
on Goose Creek to make a very good 
story. He was buying the huge traps 
to catch some uncanny creature which 
visited his farm at night and carried off 
whole clothes lines. That was enough 
for the village gossips. They enlarged 
the story at each telling until it became 
a regular fairy tale, with the villain a 
creature nearly as high as the trees, 
marching about in the woods terrorizing 
the inhabitants. 

So sure did the gossips become of the 
truth of the story, that they even made 
Farmer Slown wonder whether it might 
not be true. He stayed all day in the 
village repeating his version of it to all 
86 


THE MYSTERY SOLVED 


the newcomers and so thoroughly enjoy- 
ing being a hero that he let his own im- 
agination work a little to make the story 
better. He even described the dread- 
ful creature as he thought it ought to 
look. Needless to say it did not resem- 
ble a little wood pussy. 

One of those who took great interest 
in the affair was the Editor of the little 
local paper. He saw a great opportun- 
ity and made the most of it in a special 
afternoon edition with the story under 
black headlines and illustrated with 
sketches of a creature as large as a house 
and resembling a cross between a camel 
and an elephant. 

The little paper circulated far and 
wide and was quoted by papers else- 
where until the story in its exaggerated 
form, was being discussed in the biggest 
87 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

cities. The general conclusion seemed 
to be that someone had gone loony or 
else that a prehistoric mammal had been 
hiding in the Pine Barrens all these 
years and had now suddenly been dis- 
covered. 

In a week Goose Creek was a famous 
place. Newspapers sent photographers 
there who poled up and down the 
stream taking pictures of places wild 
enough to be the den of the monster and 
of any holes in the mud which might be 
taken for its foot prints. And Farmer 
Slown was still the great hero whom 
everyone had to visit and listen to and 
sympathize with. 

Meanwhile the wood pussies, cause 
of all the excitement, could not under- 
stand what had happened to make the 
place so noisy and unsafe for them. 

88 


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He approached with caution 


THE MYSTERY SOLVED 


There were strange people and strange 
dogs in the woods, there were shouts 
and gunshots and new odors. The 
mother, always nervous, hunted for a 
new den and finally moved the family 
to -a deserted woodchuck burrow under 
a holly tree in the middle of the burned 
section of the wood, not very far from 
where the brush pile had once stood. 

But Striped Coat did not like the 
change. The other young ones were 
quarrelsome and the new quarters were 
crowded. Also he missed his white 
crow. So after one day in the burrow 
he made a trip all by himself back to 
the barn, looking more than ever like a 
fur ball as, all fluffed up with excite- 
ment, he marched along the field. 

Nor had his white crow disappointed 
him. He approached with caution and 
89 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

in her nest found a fine egg, with a 
shell thin enough for him to crack. Its 
luscious contents were both food and 
drink. Afterwards he wandered under 
the barn and remodelled the bed to suit 
his own needs. The remains of the 
blue night shirt he draped around the 
top, the socks he stuffed underneath. 
By morning he was curled up in the 
middle of the comfortable mass, fast 
asleep. 

That day a city cousin of the Farmer, 
a Mrs. Simkins, arrived by boat to get 
first hand details of the strange affairs 
which had so suddenly made the family 
famous. She brought as companion her 
son, an overgrown boy named Oswald 
who, having read a good many books, 
thought himself pretty smart, and per- 
haps he was. At any rate, while his 
90 


THE MYSTERY SOLVED 


mother was talking to the Farmer in the 
parlor, Oswald nosed about the farm. 

He managed to escape disaster, ex- 
cept for one bee sting and a good but- 
ting from the goat, until by mere chance 
he wandered back of the barn and 
caught sight of the hole leading under- 
neath it. Here was mystery! In true 
detective fashion he examined the open- 
ing and found two large hairs, one 
black the other white. 

‘'A cat!” said the bright Oswald. 
‘‘Maybe it has kittens under here. I’ll 
have a look.” Getting down on his 
stomach he wormed his way under the 
barn until, his eyes becoming used to 
the darkness, he could see all about. 
Everything was bare except in one cor- 
ner. Oswald elbowed his way in that 
direction. Yes, he had certainly found 
91 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

the kittens, for here was a bed for them, 
all nicely made with rags ! 

“Pussy, pussy,” called Oswald. He 
did not want to surprise an angry cat. 
“Pussy, pussy.” And then to his joy 
there stood up in the middle of the nest 
not a big mother cat but a fluffy black 
kitten with white stripes on its head and 
neck. 

Oswald’s heart gave a thump of de- 
light. Here was just the pet for him. 
He would catch it and take it home. 
Of course his cousin the Farmer 
wouldn’t mind, since it was he who had 
found it. But he must not let it get 
away! Craftily advancing an arm un- 
der cover of many “pussy, pussies,” he 
felt the right moment had come. 
Around went his hand in a sudden wild 
grab. 


92 


THE MYSTERY SOLVED 

“Yow-w-w-w-w!” howled Oswald as 
the little “kitten” gave him a musk 
bath precisely where it would do the 
most good — “Yow-w-w-w-w!” 

He could not see and he could not 
breathe, so he made up for it in yells 
which even reached his mother in the 
Farmer’s parlor. She had just been 
telling her cousin what a wonderful boy 
her Oswald was. 

“Yes,” she went on, “he isn’t like 
other boys at all. He is never idle, he 
is always finding out things for himself 
or doing something splendid! Ah! 
What’s that! I think I hear him call- 
ing. He always does that when he’s 
found something wonderful!” 

So Mrs. Simkins and the Farmer 
went out of the house to see what Os- 
wald had found. They heard him all 
93 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

right, but they could not find him. 

"'Yow-w-w-w-w!’’ howled Oswald 
more wild with fury because his fond 
Mamma had not at once come to his 
rescue. ‘‘Yow-w-w-w-w! ! !” 

‘‘Sounds as if he were under the 
barn!” exclaimed the Farmer at last. 
He walked around to the back and 
there found a foot sticking out of the 
hole. Dodging a kick, he seized the 
foot and began to pull, Mrs. Simpkins, 
now much alarmed, pulling also until 
between them they nearly pulled Os- 
wald in two. 

“We’ve got him!” gurgled Mrs. 
Simpkins as more body appeared and 
the sound of the yells grew louder. 
“Oh, what an awful smell!” 

“I say so, too!” agreed the Farmer 
heartily. “Let’s poke him back.” 

94 


THE MYSTERY SOLVED 

But just then the whole of Oswald 
came out and his mother clasped him to 
her in utter disregard of consequences. 

'‘My son,” cried Mrs. Simpkins trag- 
ically, "what has happened!” 

"A kitty!” cried Oswald, "a little 
black kitty with a white striped coat.” 
Then, seeing the Farmer’s convulsed 
face, his tears drowned all else. 

"Well, well, it’s all right,” crooned 
his mother, "but what’s that you’ve got 
in your hand?” The Farmer looked 
too and all at once his face grew very 
red. Tightly clutched in Oswald’s 
hand was all that was left of the blue 
night shirt. 

A few hours later Mrs. Simpkins, 
waiting with her son for a train at the 
village station, was being interviewed 
by an appreciative reporter. 

95 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

“Yes,” she was saying. “It was all 
my Oswald. He isn’t like other boys. 
He is always finding out things for him- 
self. He went under the barn all 
alone and discovered the lost clothes. 
Isn’t he wonderful?” 

The reporter’s eye swept apprais- 
ingly over the bl ushing Oswald. 

“Well, yes,” he admitted reluctantly, 
“he certainly is; but, doesn’t he smell 
awful!” 


96 


CHAPTER IX 


FIFTY DOLLARS ON HIS HEAD 

l^ARMER SLOWN was sitting on 
^ his doorstep reading another special 
edition of the village paper. Opposite 
him stood a stranger watching with 
amusement the changing expression on 
the Farmer’s red face. 

‘‘That’s the line I referred to,” he in- 
terrupted the other man. “See, right 
here!” He pointed to a paragraph. 
The Farmer began to read it aloud. 

“And so,” he read, “the great mon- 
ster of the woods, the prehistoric mam- 
mal, turned out to be nothing more than 
a little skunk. The boy who made the 
97 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

discovery described it as jet black all 
over except for white stripes on its head 
and neck. Could a more ridiculous 
ending possibly be — ” 

'That’s enough,” said the man, "did 
you notice it said jet black except for 
white on its head and neck? Well I’ve 
come to buy that skunk. What do you 
want for him alive?” 

"But he got away, vanished before 
we came back from the house after- 
scrubbing the boy.” 

"That’s all the better; might have 
got hurt otherwise, eh? He will stay 
around here somewhere. Now what 
I want you to do is to set some traps 
until you catch him. I’ve brought the 
traps. They’re made like boxes, plenty 
of room inside. What do you say?” 
"Catch a live skunk!” the Farmer ex- 
98 


FIFTY DOLLARS ON HIS HEAD 

claimed suspiciously. '‘Not I, do it 
yourself.’’ Then the thought came to 
him that perhaps the man really would 
be fool enough to pay money for a 
skunk. “How much will you give for 
him,” he asked. 

“Twenty-five dollars,” was the 
prompt reply. The Farmer could 
scarcely conceal a gasp of surprise. 
Why, his goat wasn’t worth that much! 
His eyes narrowed ; 

“Not enough,” he answered craftily. 

“Thirty-five, then.” 

“Not enough,” croaked the Farmer 
again experimentally. The man re- 
garded him doubtfully. 

“Well,” he said at length, “fifty is my 
limit. But he’s got to be unhurt 
and well, do you understand?” The 
Farmer stood up. 


99 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

“All right,” he agreed, “I’ll catch him 
for you. Let’s see your traps. I’ve 
had two of mine set for several nights 
but haven’t caught anything.” 

“What do you use for bait?” 

“Socks,” grunted the Farmer shame- 
facedly. “He seemed to like them.” 
The man held back a smile, gave some 
instructions and then turned to his boat 
for the trip back to the village. He 
owned a farm on which he raised skunks 
in pens much as a poultryman raised 
chickens except that it was the fur of 
the skunks which was marketable. The 
more black fur there was on a skin, the 
more valuable it was, therefore an al- 
most entirely black skunk like Striped 
Coat was worth a good sum to the farm. 

While Striped Coat was thus being 
sold alive, he was safely sleeping with 

lOO 


FIFTY DOLLARS ON HIS HEAD 


his family in the holly tree burrow to 
which he had run after discovery by the 
boy. A less sensible skunk might have 
remained and been killed but Striped 
Coat was not one of that kind. 

It was on the third night after this, 
that he and the others came across the 
first of Farmer Slown’s new traps. 
The family had just come from Goose 
Creek, for now that it was time for them 
to take care of themselves in the world, 
the mother’s milk had failed them and 
they needed water as well as food. 

Wandering along a path made by old 
Muskrat in his search for grass roots, 
they caught the scent of a freshly killed 
chicken and found that it came from a 
long box which had an opening at one 
end. The mother, nervous as usual, 
looked at this with such suspicion that 

lOI 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

the others held back too, although much 
interested in the smell of this kind of 
food. 

They kept wandering around the box 
sniffing, until all at once the runt of the 
family, a pretty black and white little 
fellow, could resist it no longer and 
slipped in. They crowded about the 
entrance when — bang — down came a 
board with a clatter, nearly smashing 
a nose or two and completely shutting 
the entrance. 

Those on the outside sprang back, 
but the runt was caught and could only 
add to their alarm by frantic scratching 
on the hard wood inside. That was 
lesson enough for Striped Coat; he 
knew now that a box with a hole was 
something dangerous even if it con- 
tained good food. 


102 


FIFTY DOLLARS ON HIS HEAD 


In that way the family lost the runt. 
Soon afterwards quarreling divided the 
remainder, the mother and Striped Coat 
staying together and still living in the 
holly tree burrow. Sometimes they all 
met at night in their hunting, but these 
meetings grew less frequent until 
Striped Coat and the mother seemed to 
have the woods around Farmer Slown’s 
entirely to themselves. 

It was to be sure the time of plenty. 
Every rain brought out many kinds of 
edible toadstools in the woods, black- 
berries hung heavily from their stems, 
grasshoppers and crickets had grown 
big and fat, white grubs swarmed under 
the grass roots around the Farmer’s 
field. Also there were great green to- 
mato worms, turtles, frogs, toads and 
little snakes, nests of yellow jackets, 
103 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

bees and other insects. Mice too were 
plentiful and unwary. 

So Striped Coat grew amazingly just 
as did all the other young woods folk. 
At first he grew long and lanky, with 
short patchy fur and spindly tail, in 
much the same way as a young hawk be- 
fore it acquires its full plumage; later 
he filled out, his fur becoming thick and 
glossy. By the end of August he was 
as large as his mother and still growing. 
He was wise enough not to be lured 
into the Farmer’s traps and, like his 
mother he now had the right of way 
over the other woods animals, being in- 
deed treated with all the dignity of a 
full grown skunk. 

More men than the Farmer were 
after him however, for the news had 
104 



In much the same way as a young hawk before it acquires 
its full plumage 




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FIFTY DOLLARS ON HIS HEAD 


spread that he was worth fifty dollars, 
and that sum, walking around as it 
were, loose and unclaimed in the woods, 
was a decided lure to everyone. Ever 
since the great mystery of Farmer 
Slown’s lost clothes had been cleared up 
by the boy’s description of Striped Coat, 
he had become a marked individual, 
spoken of, oddly enough, as Striped 
Coat, the black skunk. Whenever 
the word skunk was mentioned, people 
soon switched the conversation to 
him. 

The question to be solved was, where 
did he have his den. With that dis- 
covered, the matter of trapping or dig- 
ging him out would be a simple one. 
The old trappers of the neighborhood 
said little but waited patiently for the 
103 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


coming of late autumn, when the leaves 
would no longer be on the bushes. And 
every day brought this danger time just 
that much nearer. 


io6 


CHAPTER X 


CAPTURED AT LAST 

TT was in September that Striped 
^ Coat made an important discovery; 
travelling further up Goose Creek than 
usual, he came across a log cabin, not 
the kind ordinarily built by summer vis- 
itors on a good stream for canoeing, but 
one which seemed a part of the woods 
itself. 

Instead of being wary about ap- 
proaching it. Striped Coat found it 
actually luring him. Coming closer, 
he found at one end an open door lead- 
ing into a room lighted only by the dull 
glow from an open fire-place in front of 
107 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


which stood cozy chairs and a table, ob- 
jects which to him seemed to offer good 
cover under which to hide if necessary. 

For some moments he stood on the 
threshold, lured by the smell of food 
and by the interesting look of the place, 
but undecided whether it was safe to 
venture where man had evidently re- 
cently been. Finally, encouraged by 
the absolute quiet, he stepped in, war- 
ily, but without any fear, for real fear 
such as many animals showed, was some- 
thing which he did not seem ever to 
have. Wandering silently about the 
room, his nostrils dulled by the smoke, 
he came directly in front of a man loll- 
ing comfortably in one of the chairs. 
The effect was almost electrical. The 
man’s eyes grew suddenly round and 
bulging and he turned a complete back- 
108 


CAPTURED AT LAST 


ward somersault, landing on his feet 
and then diving through the open win- 
dow. 

“Help!” he yelled when outside. 
“Mr. Henry, come quick!” 

Striped Coat, who had fluffed up in 
readiness for anything, moved for the 
door, just as another man sprang in and 
slammed it behind him. The man 
stood absolutely motionless with his 
back against the door looking at Striped 
Coat who had stopped with tail over his 
back and every hair on end waiting for 
the slightest further move of this new 
enemy. It was a critical moment. 
The man won; Striped Coat would not 
attack, his weapon was for defense, and 
the man did not move even a finger. 

So Striped Coat sidled to the other 
end of the room to find another outlet. 


109 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

He did not hurry, he was on his dignity 
and knew he was being watched. 
Looking up at the open window, which 
was out of his reach, he was just in 
time to see the top of the first man’s 
head duck out of sight. Mike had 
come back to watch, but knew a skunk 
when he saw one and was taking no 
chances. 

There was no other opening. Striped 
Coat was trapped at last. 

Mr. Henry, the man at the door 
moved quietly to a chair and sat down. 

“Mike,” he called, “did you ever see 
a skunk like that? It’s the black one 
they’re all after. Isn’t he a daisy!” 
The top of Mike’s head and one eye 
appeared warily over the window sill. 

“He’s all of that,” he answered, “the 
biggest, prettiest skunk I ever saw ! 
no 


CAPTURED AT LAST 


And he nearly had me, too!” Mr. 
Henry laughed, then picked a piece of 
fish from one of the plates on the table, 
and laid it on the floor in front of him. 
Soon Striped Coat in circling the room 
again, came across this and ate it just 
to show he was not afraid. When he 
came around again, he found another 
piece in the same place and ate that. 
It was good fish! Everytime he came 
to that spot he found a piece, laid there 
by Mr. Henry, whom he presently be- 
gan to watch with more interest than he 
would show an enemy. When this 
man moved at all, it was so slowly that 
Striped Coat could not take offense. 

Presently the man stood up, very 
quietly moved to the corner of the room 
and pulled a huge wood box the dis- 
tance of a foot from the wall; behind 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


this, in the corner, he spread some 
clothes and an armful of cotton waste. 
Striped Coat could go in and out of this 
cozy nest from either side of the box; 
it therefore had none of the looks of a 
trap. After a little while he tried it, 
then tried it again and finally settled 
down for a rest in this new bed. 

“Well, I never!” came from the awe- 
struck Mike. Mr. Henry then ar- 
ranged some bedding on one of the sofas 
and suggested that Mike also prepare 
for a sleep; but that worthy preferred 
the boat. The last thing was to place 
some more fish and a bowl of water on 
the floor and to open the door leading 
out to the woods; after that Mr. Henry 
went comfortably to sleep on the couch. 

Striped Coat, too, actually took a nap, 

the warmth being pleasant and the still- 
112 


CAPTURED AT LAST 


ness reassuring. Before the glow of 
the fire had entirely died, however, he 
walked out and looked all around the 
room; finding the door open he moved 
out, then returned and ate the fish; 
soon afterwards he was again in the 
woods but with no unfriendly feeling 
towards the Henry cabin. Near the 
Creek he came across a likely den under 
a stump, and being loggy with all the 
food he had eaten, slipped in there for 
the day. 

This proved a serious blunder, for a 
picnic party came up the creek in canoes 
and chose that precise spot for lunch- 
eon. One of the men sat on the stump 
and amused himself by poking sticks 
into the hollow underneath it, finding 
to his surprise that something inside 
resented this and replied with dis- 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

tinctly audible stamps of its feet. 
Proudly announcing this discovery, he 
poked more thoroughly while the others 
stood about and excitedly encouraged 
him. 

Suddenly there was a scuffle and out 
sprang Striped Coat, at the same time 
giving the young man the full benefit 
of the musk bath. Amid the confusion 
of shrieks from the women and yells 
from the men he slipped into the bushes 
and ran as he had never run before. 
After him came a yelling crowd, gather- 
ing up sticks and trying to head him off. 

And still Striped Coat ran, dodging 
and threatening his pursurers when 
they came too close, but ever getting 
nearer to the Henry cabin. At the 
open doorway stood Mr. Henry, a pipe 


CAPTURED AT LAST 


in his mouth ; he did not move a muscle 
as the wood pussy crossed the little 
clearing, eyed him inquiringly and then 
slipped by and into his nest behind the 
woodbox, with all his old dignity sud- 
denly returned. 

Outside the cabin a howl of joy went 
up from the pursuers. 

''We’ve got him now!” they shouted. 
But Mr. Henry still quietly smoked in 
the doorway and eyed them composedly. 

"The skunk,” he said, at last, "is in 
my house. It is safe with me.” 

"But that’s the black skunk! That’s 
old Striped Coat!” shouted one. They 
stood about arguing until another of 
their number called disgustedly. "Ah! 
can’t you see? He wants all the re- 
ward for himself. Come on back.” 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


Then they trooped away, vowing all 
kinds of vengeance; but Mr. Henry 
still smoked. 

He was however thinking very hard. 
Unless he did exactly the right thing he 
saw very clearly that this splendid little 
animal of the woods would sooner or 
latter be killed or captured. The news 
of where it had last been seen would 
spread only too quickly. Presently 
he called in the reluctant Mike and 
helped him make a hole in one corner of 
the cabin floor to serve as a safer re- 
treat for Striped Coat who by using it 
could go under the cabin itself. 

And Striped Coat seemed to under- 
stand, for all that night he could be 
heard digging under the floor to make 
the place even more cozy and safe. 

ii6 


CHAPTER XI 


THE WINTER SLEEP 

IVT R. HENRY had taken such a lik- 
ing to Striped Coat that he 
wanted to make sure the wild wood 
pussy would like the cabin well enough 
to make it a permanent home. With 
this in mind he built an underground 
drain leading under it to a pile of 
stones nearby. Safety was even more 
important than comfort in the matter of 
a den, and through this back door 
Striped Coat could feel able to go or 
come when he chose. The stone pile 
hid the entrance and allowed no animal 
larger than he, to enter through its 
cracks. 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

It was a fine arrangement and 
Striped Coat liked it. He built a big 
nest of dry grass, leaves and cotton 
waste under the cabin and slept there 
instead of in his corner back of the wood 
box, but at night he often came out of 
the hole in the floor and walked around 
the room while Mr. Henry was eating 
supper, showing friendliness but in a 
dignified, distant way. After eating a 
few scraps he would go back to the hole, 
then out through the drain to the stone 
pile around which he would walk for a 
time scenting the air and making very 
sure all was well before leaving for the 
woods. 

He was growing bigger and finer 
every day. By the time the frosts of Oc- 
tober had turned the leaves red, sweet- 
ened the acorns and numbed the big in- 
118 


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ripe fruit, often shaken down by Possum 



THE WINTER SLEEP 


sects so that they were more easily 
caught, his winter coat of fur to keep 
him warm in the coming icy weather, 
was almost at its full prime, long, al- 
most like velvet in softness, and black 
as coal, yet so glossy that it fairly glit- 
tered in the sunlight. On his head and 
neck stood out the pretty white mark- 
ings which had given him his name. 

His hunts in the woods now were 
wonderful picnics. In the grassy spots 
he could find big, full grown grasshop- 
pers and crickets, as well as luscious 
white grubs which dry weather had 
brought up within an inch or two of the 
surface of the ground. Around the 
grape-vine tangles, and under the per- 
simmon and wild apple trees he picked 
up ripe fruit often shaken down by 
Possum, and under the white oaks, 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


acorns almost as sweet as chestnuts, 
while many other plants, bushes, vines 
and trees bore edible things which he 
liked, such as tubers, berries or seeds. 
He found many mice too in their nests 
of grass, and more yellow jacket and 
bumble bee combs than he could eat. 
No wonder therefore that he was able 
to store up a lot of surplus food in the 
form of fat, to help him live through the 
coming winter when bad weather might 
keep him from finding more food for 
weeks at a time. 

It is well that Autumn is a time of 
plenty, for in the North it enables the 
animals and even some birds which do 
not migrate to the warm South, to gather 
much more food than they need at the 
moment. When the cold winds blow 
and the ground is frozen it is badly 
120 


THE WINTER SLEEP 


needed. Red Squirrel hid nuts in 
forks of limbs and in hollows and crev- 
ices, Grey Squirrel buried a supply in 
good safe places, Ground Hackie made 
a granary for himself underground, the 
foxes buried things like dead mice, 
pieces of rabbit, frogs, snakes, fish and 
even apples, but creatures like Bear, 
Woodchuck, Possum, Coon and Striped 
Coat just stored, in layers of rich 
fat around their body, enough nourish- 
ment to carry them through the hard 
months, until warm, pleasant days came. 
Those that were not wise enough to 
gather a supply in some form, had a ter- 
rible time and often died before spring. 

As Mr. Henry kept open house at the 
cabin every Sunday, it was usual for at 
least one canoe party of his family and 
friends to come for luncheon and a walk 

I2I 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


around the interesting woods. But 
more interesting to them than anything 
else was an occasional glimpse of 
Striped Coat, who though usually sleep- 
ing in the day time was waked up by 
the new voices and often induced to 
come out for a dainty piece of meat or 
fish. The friendliness of this beauti- 
ful and entirely free creature of the 
woods delighted many a visitor. 

When really cold weather set in, Mr. 
Henry prepared to leave the cabin until 
Spring, so he anxiously watched Striped 
Coat in the hope that before leaving 
time came, the wood pussy would hiber- 
nate, that is to say, go to sleep for the 
winter in the safe, warm nest. His 
fat would feed him while he slept, for 
without exercise he would not need 
much nourishment. The woods were 


122 


The friendliness of this beautiful and entirely free creature of the woods delighted 

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THE WINTER SLEEP 


well sprinkled with traps and a snow 
for tracking might come at any time 
and help Farmer Slown or other woods- 
man to locate his den and set the 
traps more dangerously unless he was 
guarded. 

At length a very cold day came and 
Striped Coat could be heard remodel- 
ing his nest and digging energetically. 
Mr. Henry watched for him and was 
surprised once or twice to see the head 
of an entirely strange wood pussy 
thrust out of the hole in the floor as it 
looked around. What it was hunting 
for, was soon shown by Striped Coat 
who presently came out and began 
dragging at the rug as if to carry it 
away with him. 

‘‘Ah! so that’s it,” thought the 
watcher, “ you have brought in a friend 
123 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


to Stay with you and need more covers 
to make him comfortable. Well, you 
shall have them!” And as often as 
Striped Coat came up, he was handed a 
ball of cotton waste. Soon he appeared 
no more and all was quiet except for the 
sighing of the north wind outside. 
Striped Coat had gone comfortably to 
sleep, and with him, as in the days when 
he was little, was his mother. 


124 


t 


CHAPTER XII 


THE SPRING AWAKENING 

T^ECEMBER and January passed 
without Striped Coat waking up 
for more than an occasional peep at the 
woods whenever the warm south wind 
was blowing; but the last days of Feb- 
ruary found him uneasy and on the 
watch for good weather ; then there 
came a gentle warm rain which brought 
a new scent into the woods — the scent 
of Spring. 

Striped Coat caught it and was lured 
out as soon as darkness came; his mother 
followed eagerly. They were both 
anxious to get food but also interested 

125 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

in looking around and hunting up the 
old places which they had frequented in 
the summer. The mother travelled to 
the deserted woodchuck burrow under 
the holly tree, and finding it pleasantly 
dry and homelike, rearranged the nest 
and slept there instead of returning to 
the cabin. 

Striped Coat however went further; 
he made a great circle through the 
woods which carried him far beyond 
Farmer Slown’s field to a sandy hill 
where, because the ground was dryer 
and warmer than below, many animals 
had their winter dens and where there- 
fore it was not as lonely as nearer the 
Creek. Here he found the trails of Pos- 
sum and of Coon and even of Gray Fox, 
but of none of his own kind. Wher- 
ever he went he saw others of the woods 
126 


THE SPRING AWAKENING 


folk, all hungry, all in a hurry and none 
interested in him. 

That day he spent in a hollow log 
far in the pines. It was an uncom- 
fortable place, so he left it early on the 
following night and restlessly resumed 
his trip through the dripping, scented 
woods, on and on with scarcely a stop 
for rest. The long sleep had left him 
lonely, he knew that somewhere were 
companions, and he would keep on go- 
ing until he found them. 

Nearly all of the food of the last year 
had already been gathered by the woods 
creatures and the new year’s food had 
not begun to grow, but here and there 
he picked up something to stave off 
hunger — a half awakened insect or two, 
a dead shrew, scattered acorns and some 
grass bulbs. Here and there, too, he 
127 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

found good dens and spent more than 
one day in comfortably sleeping in 
them, only to start out again at dusk. 

His seemed now almost a hopeless 
task, due to the success of trappers and 
especially to Farmer Slown’s relent- 
less work against the wood pussies ; yet 
still he searched. 

At length his circle brought him back 
to the Goose Creek country where he 
knew the trails and felt a longing once 
more to sleep safely in his home under 
the cabin. For ten nights he had been 
travelling, and now disheartened, foot- 
sore and thin, he was back where he 
started, after finding the world a 
lonely place. But here would at least 
be his mother, or was she too gone now 
and he left, the last of the wood pus- 
sies on Goose Creek? 

128 


THE SPRING AWAKENING 


Ahead loomed the cabin. Striped 
Coat, dragging himself gloomily through 
the bushes scarcely looked at it until, 
near the stone pile, he caught on a 
breath of wind an unfamiliar scent — 
very faint, very elusive but at the 
same time unmistakably telling him 
that a strange wood pussy had been 
there. 

In an instant it reawakened his inter- 
est in life and made of him a different 
looking creature. Again he was alert, 
quick footed, eager. Again his wonder- 
ful fur fluffed up, until his body looked 
like a perfect muff. 

Cautiously, he entered the drain, fol- 
lowing the elusive scent which led un- 
der the cabin and showed that in his 
absence the other wood pussy had act- 
ually slept in his cozy nest. Now the 
129 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

den was empty, he had come back too 
late. 

Striped Coat moved about, noting all 
the places where the other had walked 
also. Little changes had been made 
here and there — a burrow started, some 
earth moved away from the nest and 
the nest itself made smaller as if to fit 
around a smaller body. Presently he 
came again to the drain and started out, 
determined to go in search of this other, 
where he did not know. 

And then he noticed the scent more 
strongly, and coming out of the stone 
pile found it stronger still, as if the 
other had been there only a moment be- 
fore. Searching this way and that he 
picked up the trail and followed it into 
the woods. Had the other come back 
to the cabin and, finding the rightful 


THE SPRING AWAKENING 


owner in possession tried to escape un- 
observed? But how escape Striped 
Coat, whose nose was as keen as a knife 
blade was sharp; Striped Coat, the 
fame of whose fur had travelled over 
a whole country and who yet lived; 
Striped Coat who could travel a whole 
night without growing tired; Striped 
Coat who was lonely! 

And did the other really wish very 
much to escape? Was not she too 
lonely? If not, why should she have 
gone so slowly into the woods as to be 
scarcely out of sight of the cabin when 
Striped Coat came rushing along her 
trail. Pretty little wood pussy ! Was 
not she as thrilled as he at this meeting 
and timidly anxious to make friends? 

And yet she pretended with all her 
might that she did not care the least bit 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

about him and wanted to continue her 
lonely way, and only when Striped Coat 
seemed on the point of turning back 
would she look around and hesitate and 
lead him on again. And somehow it 
happened that instead of going further 
into the big woods, they made a circle 
which brought them back to the cabin. 
Side by side they neared the entrance, 
and just as the sun lit up the sky in the 
East they vanished that way into the 
stone pile, and Striped Coat had found 
a companion. 


132 


Side by side they neared the entrance 




CHAPTER XIII 


RAISING A FAMILY 

XX rHEN the early pink and white 
^ ’ flowers of the trailing arbutus 
brightened the ground in many parts of 
the slowly awakening woods, Mr. Henry 
returned to the cabin. It was there that 
he found it possible to do his best work, 
for he was a writer, who needed the 
quiet and solitude of a place like this. 
Nothing really unpleasant ever seemed 
to happen there, and interesting things 
were always cropping up. For instance 
there was Striped Coat ! And now 
Striped Coat had a mate! 

But the other little wood pussy did 
133 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


not like the noise of footsteps on the 
floor over her head. They frightened 
her. So after two days of nervous 
watchfulness, she could bear it no longer 
and slipped out under cover of the twi- 
light, picking her way into the woods 
until she reached an uprooted pine 
under whose trunk a large woodchuck 
had dug a burrow. This old fellow 
had only recently awakened from his 
winter sleep and was at that moment 
in his snug nest, dreaming no doubt of 
the time when the woods would again 
be full of eatable green things. 

It could not be said therefore that 
he was overjoyed when he heard 
scratching at his front door and caught 
the scent of the wood pussy as she de- 
scended towards him. Knowing from 
experience that to steal a burrow like 
134 


RAISING A FAMILY 


this was a great temptation to the meat 
eaters who needed dens for themselves, 
he at once began to make unpleasant 
remarks in woodchuck language and to 
threaten with his teeth, the longest of 
which being arranged like a rat’s in the 
front of his mouth, could give a fearful 
bite. 

But the wood pussy had come there 
because she already knew that this bur- 
row was just the right size for her, a 
smaller woodchuck’s home would not 
have been comfortable. Moreover an 
old woodchuck’s den was usually well 
hidden and made with plenty of protec- 
tion against rain and dampness as well 
as with a second entrance for escape in 
case of danger. It would not be an 
easy matter to drive out the old fighter 
who was quite as large as herself, but 
135 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

her need was urgent and this burrow 
suited her exactly. 

Showing her teeth and threatening 
with the musk bath made no difference 
however to this woodchuck, indeed he 
worked himself into such a rage that he 
even drove her back inch by inch until 
he had her almost at the entrance again. 
This fighting spirit however proved his 
undoing, for suddenly he was attacked 
from the rear and with a force which 
there was no resisting. Striped Coat 
had followed the trail of his companion 
and, finding her fighting in the burrow, 
had run in too and tried to push past in 
order to help. The burrow being much 
too narrow for this, he had then rushed 
out of that entrance and in at the back 
door so quickly that he was able to sur- 
prise the old chuck before he could re- 
136 


RAISING A FAMILY 


turn to his usual fighting position in 
a corner with back protected. 

Now, there was nothing for him to 
do but get out of his burrow as quickly 
as he could and go somewhere else where 
he might hope to have a little peace be 
fore being found again and driven out 
by some den hunter. It sounded like a 
hard life, but Ground Hog’s claws and 
feet were so powerful that in soft earth 
he could dig a fairly good den in a day. 
He was lucky this time, for had it been 
a fox instead of a wood pussy, he would 
surely have been eaten. 

And so with Striped Coat still living 
under the cabin, his mate got a fine den 
all to herself, which came in handy a 
few weeks later when six little ones ar- 
rived, three of them like the mother and 
three with the dark body and the mark- 
137 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

ings of Striped Coat, their father, al- 
ready showing in their skin. Healthy 
little things they were too, with plenty 
of appetite which their mother was us- 
ually able to supply, for almost her 
only thought now was of these helpless, 
hairless little youngsters. 

She had carried into the den and 
stored away conveniently, several half 
eaten mice, lizards and little snakes 
which, for a day or two, made it unneces- 
sary for her to do much hunting, but on 
the fourth day she felt very hungry and 
wandered all the way to Farmer Slown’s 
field. 

Striped Coat, coming across her trail, 
followed her there and arrived at al- 
most the same moment, so together they 
explored the edge of the field for beetles 
and at length reached the barn under 
138 


RAISING A FAMILY 


which Striped Coat slipped, as in the 
old days ; but now things were changed, 
there were vile odors and diggings of 
rats on all sides. 

Even as they entered, a huge male rat 
ran past them and sulkily entered a bur- 
row. Striped Coat turned towards him, 
but not as quickly as his mate who 
dashed after the flying tail. She was 
still ravenously hungry and here was 
meat. 

The rat however was now in his nar- 
row den, feeling quite safe enough to 
turn and chatter furiously at his pur- 
suers who accepted his challenge by be- 
ginning to dig. The burrow ran close 
to the surface of the ground, so they 
made the dirt fairly fly and took short 
cuts by skipping over some sections. 
This was the kind of work they were 
139 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


built for and the eagerness of his mate 
had now thoroughly aroused Striped 
Coat. 

From one hole to another they chased 
the clever rat until it seemed as if at 
any moment they would have him cor- 
nered and force him to fight, but he 
knew what he was about and kept one 
thing in reserve, a dash to Farmer 
Slown’s own house, under which he had 
a hole leading into the kitchen. He 
reckoned however without the experi- 
enced wisdom of Striped Coat. 

When what seemed to him the right 
moment had come, the rat poked his 
battle scarred gray nose out of the hid- 
den hole, saw that the way seemed 
clear and made a rush, but Striped Coat 
had been waiting for just this move and 
140 




The three tugging, biting, squealing and pulling each other this way and that until 
they burst from under the barn and had it out on the flat ground 


RAISING A FAMILY 


made a rush too. He and the rat 
bumped into each other amid furious 
squeals, and the rat was thrown off his 
feet. In that moment the other wood 
pussy reached him and landed on top 
with both front paws and all her weight, 
but without so much as knocking the 
breath out of the powerful, big fellow 
who rolled over and would have escaped 
had not Striped Coat caught him sud- 
denly by the skin on the back of his 
head. 

Then the fight became furious. The 
three tugging, biting, squealing and 
pulling each other this way and that 
until they burst from under the barn 
and had it out on the flat ground di- 
rectly in front of the Farmer’s house. 
Here the moon shone on the battle and 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

helped the mother wood pussy to see 
her chance to get the death grip on the 
rat’s thick neck and finish him. 

They did not hear a window open 
over their heads nor see the Farmer’s 
face appear; in the heat of the fighting 
they had forgotten all else. But now 
Striped Coat, who still had his grip on 
the rat’s head, began to drag him under 
the fence and then to the bushes and 
then to a dark thicket where they 
seemed safe. 

Striped Coat lay down to lick a badly 
bitten paw and to free his wonderful 
fur from dirt, which he did by carefully 
shaking, scratching and much work with 
his mouth. But his mate began at the 
left hind leg of the rat and ate as long 
as she could find anything tender 
enough to chew. It was not as tasty a 
143 


RAISING A FAMILY 


meal as she would have liked, but it all 
went to keep her strong and so to help 
the six little ones to get all the milk 
they needed. 


U3 


CHAPTER XIV 


MASTER OF THE WOODS 

TT was early morning. Under the 
cabin, Striped Coat was in his big 
bed curled up asleep but twitching oc- 
casionally as he dreamed of battles with 
old warrior rats. In the woodchuck’s 
burrow under the uprooted pine, Striped 
Coat’s mate was giving all the little 
“striped coats” their morning bath, us- 
ing her wet tongue as the wash rag. 
And in the old den under the holly tree 
Striped Coat’s mother was doing much 
the same with four little ones which 
made up her new family; pretty young- 
sters, but all showing signs of having 

144 


MASTER OF THE WOODS 

as much white as black in their mark- 
ings, when they grew up. 

Over their heads the woods was now 
a mass of green. Birds were singing, 
bees were buzzing around numberless 
flowers, far and wide there was the hum 
of the insect army now come again to 
feed on the plant life. How this army 
would spread and grow and ravage the 
land, if birds by day were not constantly 
after it on the ground, in the trees and 
in the air, and if at night its ranks were 
not attacked by the active little shrews, 
the swift flying bat, and the wood pus- 
sies, not to mention other woodsfolk 
like the fox, the mole, old Possum and 
even Screech Owl, who all helped ! In 
the water the fish did their part. Yes, 
everything must eat to live. 

And the farmers were cultivating 
145 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

their crops and raising chickens and 
other live stock, for man too must eat; 
and they were fighting everywhere the 
insects and the other vermin which 
would like to take all these things for 
themselves. One of these farmers was 
Ben Slown of Goose Creek. Upon him 
on this beautiful morning Mr. Henry 
made a call. 

It was not very formal; the Farmer 
sat on his cultivator in the field and Mr. 
Henry leaned against the fence nearby. 

“Well, how’s life at the cabin?” 
asked the Farmer. 

“Very interesting. The wild creat- 
ures are growing tame again. They are 
around or in my cabin -most of the day 
and night; it’s on account of them that 
I came to see you; I wondered whether 
you and I, working together, couldn’t 
146 


MASTER OF THE WOODS 


Stop the trapping that’s going on around 
here. Woods animals that do a lot of 
good are being killed off ; there are the 
skunks for example, only a few old 
ones are left. Can’t we save them? 
What do you say?” Mr. Henry spoke 
seriously and the Farmer listened 
equally so. Once he looked up rather 
sharply, as if wondering how much the 
other man suspected the part he had 
taken in trapping during the autumn 
and winter, but he did not interrupt. 

“I’ve been thinking about those 
skunks, Mr. Henry,” he replied. “I 
know you kept a watchful eye over the 
black one last autumn and I’m kind of 
glad of it now. All last year I saw their 
tracks over my field. I calculated 
they’d eat every vegetable and ear of 
corn I raised, and yet somehow I never 
147 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


tt 


a 


Skunk tracks. 


had a better crop anywhere. 
I’ll admit it. No cutworms, 
no grubs, none of those big 
brown beetles, even no mice 
to speak of. 

“I didn’t know just what 
was doing the good work un- 
til I — that is, the trappers — 
caught off the skunks last 
autumn. I can tell you that 
after that the mice and rats 
nearly ate me up. Well, I 
still hadn’t studied it out 
when the other night I saw 
the queerest thing ever! 
Two skunks killing a sewer 
rat almost on my doorstep, 
and it an old fellow half as 
big as one of them. Such 
squealing you never heard, I 
148 




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“That big black skunk of yours was the one that did the 

trick ” 



MASTER OF THE WOODS 

guess ! That big black skunk of yours 
was the one that did the trick; he 
wouldn’t let go, the other one just 
helped finish things. I tell you it was a 
real fight !” Farmer Slown chuckled at 
the recollection. 

'‘That rat,” he continued, "had done 
a heap of damage already, gnawing and 
digging and carrying off little chickens ; 
and neither I nor that dog of mine 
could ever get a hold of him. I have 
a feeling that the skunks take an egg 
whenever it’s left lying around, but 
they never come into my hen house like 
that rat. 

"I’m a farmer and haven’t time to fool 
with wild animals the way you can, but 
I like to have people like you around to 
buy things I raise and I have a change 
of feeling about those skunks. I’m all 
149 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 

for them since that rat business. Yes 
sir! And what’s more you needn’t 
worry about traps any longer.” Hav- 
ing said which Farmer Slown stood up to 
resume work as if the matter were now 
ended. 

Mr. Henry, however, jumped the 
fence to give his hand a hearty shake. 

“I hope we’ll be neighbors a long 
time!” he cried. As he strode back 
through the woods, the Farmer looked 
after him for a moment or two. 

“It’s funny,” he said. “Who would 
have thought I would ever find that 
neighbors and skunks were any good!” 

That night Striped Coat took a long 
trip. He wandered far below the Far- 
mer’s field and then to the sandy hill 
in the pines and lastly along the bank of 
Goose Creek. He met Mink and Coon 
150 


MASTER OF THE WOODS 

and old Possum, Gray Fox, Brown 
Weasel, Bun and the deer from Cran- 
berry Swamp. All looked at him and 
then gave him the path. Yes, there 
were many animals, but after all this 
was his range and he was master of them 
all. 

Standing once more in front of the 
stone pile he shook himself until his 
fur stood out all over him, that fur 
for which any dealer would give a big 
price. Some day his children, and per- 
haps later his children’s children, with 
black fur like his, would wander at 
night through the woods of Goose Creek 
chasing the elusive mice and beetles; 
but he was the first of the new order, he 
was Striped Coat, the Black Skunk ! 

As he stood there, a pale light spread 
over the sky, the protecting black shad- 


STRIPED COAT, THE SKUNK 


ows grew fainter. He knew that he, a 
creature of the night, must now bid fare- 
well for a while to all the outside world. 
Reluctantly, he bowed his head and en- 
tered the low arch of the stone pile. 
Slowly his body moved out of sight, then 
the long tail until not even the tip re- 
mained in view. 


THE END 



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